The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1887-06-08


described what they saw and often gave
a column to a division that did little or
nothing and paragraph to the remain
der of the army that bore the brunt of
the contest. There were other cor
respondents who carried rifles or who
held commissions in the army, and who
wrote as soldiers, describing only the
part that their own commands played
in the contest, speaking conscientiously,
however, from hearsay of the part
played by other regiments, brigades
and divisions. There were correspond
ents, again, who had all the daring of
the most courageous soldier, who lived,
as it were, on the skirmish line, and
who, having great freedom of action,
were now with the scouts, now with
the pickets, now at headquarters, and
who made it point to write history,
spiced, it may be, by personal advent
ure and colored a little by the circum-
stances under which they wrote. To
this class the general officers of the
army and the country at large were
greatly indebted, because they did
write history. / remember that just
before the battle of Stone river, riding
by the side of one of the corps COM
manders, | received the intimation from
a staff officer that the left wing of the
army would that night cross Stone river,
make night attack on Bragg's right
wing and attempt the capture of
Murfreesboro. 1t was then growing
dark, and left the group of officers to
find a position with the brigade that
was to lead the assault. | rode quietly
IL IIn ha inly
ing about the very small fires that they
were allowed to build to boil their
coffee. The order said that fires would
be allowed only for the purpose of cook
ing coffee, and that as soon as the men
had the coffee the fires were to be put
out. There was not thought among
those men that they were to make an
attack that night, and yet / knew that
such an order had been issued. While
| sat talking with an old friend, think
ing, possibly, that this would be our
last talk, and nerving myself up for the
duty that / felt would call for all the
courage l possessed, staff officer rode
along the line and recalled the order that
had kept the men in marching order
| But, on the theory that the attack
would be made by the left wing, l re-
NAMED with that section of the army
On the morning of the 31st of De-
cember, when the firing was heard on
the right, two of the correspondents
volunteered to ride over to McCook's
headquarters. In less than an hour we
were in the midst of battle confusion,
our horses were shot, my friend was
wounded and | was separated until
Il, 10 MI &c
formed on the new line. / remembered,
however, my friend with whom l
had talked few evenings before, and
/ gathered from him and from the men
of several brigades the information
that enabled me to write what the
officers and men of the army pro-
nounced one of the best descriptions of
the battle. AT Chickamauga the cor
respondents had planned to stick pretty
close to headquarters, but in the rapid
changes of the first day and in the con-
fusion of the second day we lost our
moorings. l remember at one time
the only man who remained at corps
headquarters. on what had been the
left, was a correspondent who fancied
that he was filling the bill for courage
because he stood by the corps flag. All
the regiments belonging to the COM
mand had been ordered to different
positions, had been sent to re-enforce
this division or that, and the corps
commander was virtually without a
command. In one of the fierce waves
of conflict that swept over the field this
correspondent was carried to the rear,
and from the rear he wrote a graphic
description of the battle of that day.
He talked, of course, with stragglers
interested in magnifying the disaster,
so that they might present an excuse
for their own retreat, with frightened
teamsters who had disobeyed orders
and ran away in panic, with wounded
men aggrieved in their sore distress al
what they believed was the mismanage.
ment of the officers-he listened to all
these stories, and his description was OF
a battle that never took place, but il
was accepted as description of the
battle of Chickamauga, and when the
history of that engagement was written
people at home were sOrely puzzled by
the contradictions in statement.
went on the field with two men as ca
pable as myself of doing good work
w Acl lily AOloC woo WouhuCu tooh {
rifle and joined a company in which
had several acquaintance. 1t was my
good fortune to see good deal of the
fighting that day and to be present
when Palmer's Division did its bes
work. l wrote a glowing account o.
this episode in the battle, but imagine
my surprise when, a few weeks later,
saw the letter of one of my co-laborers
in which he described Palmer's Division
as at that very time being routed anC
demoralized, as refusing to fight
/ Meeting him, few days later, triet
to tell him the real story of the conflict
but he would not hear it. The trutl
was that at the time of the fight he wa
not within ten miles of the battlefield
but if he had been taken before court
! martial he would have testified to tn
. truth of his letter. There is littl
, wonder that great many commander
! disliked the commonplace army cor
a respondent. 1t is wonder that S
many of them failed to appreciate tn
correspondents who did good work
v There were correspondents who wrot
2 from what the general officers said t
a them. Going to an officer who was
: good talker, correspondent receive
4 good deal of information tlavore
q with a fair amount of self-praise
= EA;,c, 30 n 1Ea MI n